Snow Sports: New powder proves March doesn’t have to mark ski season’s end

Thursday

Mar 21, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Shaun Sutner Snow Sports

People forget that March is often one of the snowiest months of the year, and this month has provided ample confirmation of that.

With nice cool temps no higher than the mid-40s both around here and in northern New England on the 10-day forecast, we are in great shape for one of the best spring skiing seasons in recent years.

Sure, a few local areas, including Ski Ward in Shrewsbury, are closed — mainly due to the expense of keeping lifts open and staff on when skier and rider visits have dropped dramatically.

But the local mainstay, Wachusett Mountain in Princeton, is going strong, with some of the best conditions of the year and nearly everywhere up north is open with weeks of great sliding ahead.

So don’t put away your boards just yet. When you do, I’ll have more to say about how to do that properly next week.

A hectic late season ski itinerary brought me and friends last Sunday somewhere I had never skied before, bringing my season total to 16 areas so far, with two more new ones still on the agenda.

This time, it was Dartmouth Skiway, in Lyme, N.H. This small but steep training ground for Olympians and All-Americans is owned by nearby Dartmouth College and serves as that powerhouse ski school’s practice facility for its top-rated NCAA Alpine and Nordic ski teams.

Opened in 1956, the Skiway is also open to the public. To give you an idea of its size, with 968 vertical feet and 100 acres of terrain, this place is a bit smaller than Wachusett. But its angle is sharper, and it is spread over two mountains, bisected by a road.

Advantages of this nonprofit area — in addition to its stunning, comfortable post-and-beam lodge with picture window views of the race hill, which Dartmouth rents out for large functions — are low ticket and food prices.

Regular adult day passes are $45, and it’s $20 for the rest of the season. Try the $3.50 corn dog in the cafeteria.

Unfortunately, when we hit the Skiway, the snows that blanketed southern New England and other parts of the Granite State had missed the Hanover region.

So the trails were a bit scratchy, and the surrounding peaks and valley were brown. One thing Dartmouth hasn’t invested in much is snowmaking, other than on the main race trails.

But it’s still worth a visit to this historic and challenging hill if you’re up that way.

The day before, my skiing party hit Waterville Valley, another storied ski area at the base of the White Mountains on the eastern end of New Hampshire off the I-93 ski superhighway.

Only two hours from Boston, and just over two and a half from Worcester, Waterville is the closest truly big mountain to us southlanders.

Arrayed across 4,004-foot Mt. Tecumseh, the ski area boasts a 2,020 vertical drop. The Sunnyside area flaunts True Grit, one of the steepest runs in New Hampshire and a mogul lover’s paradise.

Waterville is also renowned for its ski race program run by the famed BBTS (Black and Blue Trail Smashers) program, the elite freestyle ski program run by Nick and Suzy Preston, a top-notch terrain park, and a Nordic complex with 70 km of groomed trails.

But what really strikes me and many visitors about Waterville is its gorgeous, unspoiled setting.

Skiing first came to Waterville in the 1930s when Civilian Conservation Corps workers cut two trails. Ski industry veteran Tom Corcoran used those runs as the nucleus of the planned mountain community he founded in 1966.

One tenet of Waterville’s identity over the years has been well-controlled expansion. This is not an area of strip malls and unrestrained condo sprawl.

It is a tranquil place, and the new ownership group led by members of the Sununu family, which bought Waterville from mega-ski area owner Booth Creek in 2010, have preserved that ethos while planning for the future.

An expansion of the area’s terrain — which would be the first in 25 years — is planned for adjacent Green Peak.

In the meantime, Waterville offers a nice variety of runs, a high-speed quad, and a stunning, though windy, summit serviced by a slow double chair.

When we visited, we enjoyed a morning of four or so inches of powder atop a firm base.